The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing

I bought /The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing/ on a whim, because it had lots of illustrations and a wide variety of topics contained within. I'm not at all disappointed with the book, but I feel I should warn potential buyers that this is not necessarily the best book to start with.The authors start out with basic drawing theory, left brain vs. right brain, etc. and a few exercises to help you understand how best to approach drawing in general. They move on to talk about different types of paper, pencils, the picture plane, viewfinder, and other tools for drawing - very useful and well thought out information. Then the book jumps into various ideas for what to draw, what perspectives to try, etc.If you're thinking it sounds like something has been left out, you're right. While /Idiot's Guide to Drawing/ covers a lot of tools and drawing ideas, it doesn't offer much in the way of exercises or practical advice for actually _drawing_. So while you may be inspired by, say, the section on still life drawings, you will find very little in the way to help you practice.So what it comes down to is this: if you've dabbled a bit in drawing and aren't afraid of experimentation, this is an excellent book. Lots of good stuff in here, and great ideas for where you might want to point your creativity. But as I said, there aren't very many guided exercises in the book to help you explore the concepts you see and get any decent amount of feedback. Some would argue that lots of little exercises are silly or pointless, but I think they can be great confidence builders for those of us who tend to be overly critical of our own artwork... Or those of us who expect far too much from ourselves early on.I highly recommend this book - but with a strong suggestion that you start with one or two more basic drawing books (like /Drawing for Dummies/), unless you want to do a great deal of experimentation on your own.

Most drawing books either get too advanced early or are written for young kids. This one contains useful exercises in every chapter at a pace that isn't boring but can be followed. This is the fourth drawing book I've started and the only one I've stuck with. By chapter 8 (or 12 at the latest) your drawings will no longer belong on the refrigerator door. Good luck to all the other adult beginners out there!!

Well...stick people with depth! But seriously, I always though I had a drawing impairment gene but even after spending a few minutes with this book and the excellent ideas and advice on how to "see" objects I could actually sit down and do a drawing of my hand that looked dimensional. I am really amazed by the results so far and can certainly recommend it to those who want to have some fun and try a little drawing beyond stick people.

What a great book! Thoroughly addresses every aspect of drawing for the complete beginner with plenty of room to grow for all levels. It is excellent in the way it addresses the issue of training oneself to see skillfully in order to draw skillfully. In the absence of that information most "complete idiot's" won't even begin, but once convinced most have the confidence to try...with exciting results. This book presents a very convincing case. The book addresses almost every imaginable area of interest to an aspiring artist. Great for classroom teachers, homeschoolers and others who would like to pass on their love of drawing in an organized fashion. Top notch!